Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
Depends on the vehicle... An off-road Jeep rock crawling for days on end might get oil changed at 3K. So might a short-tripper. Most cars and light trucks that I know of go 4~6K between changes.
The State of California fleet management determined years ago that the optimum was 6,000 miles and filter every other. So that 10's of thousands of vehicles that have done that for a long time and many go to auction over 250K still running fine.
High performance and race motors are not to be treated this way because of use extremes or fuel dilution.
But, there is more to changing oil than changing oil. It's also when you crawl around under the vehicle looking at a lot of stuff, greasing zerks (my light trucks still take grease), checking brake pads, etc.
So it may be that the oil change is incidental to other work and is just a time/convenience thing and not mileage related... If that's the case, the incidental cost of the oil/filter is nothing compared to scheduling another day to do more work when you are already there ...
Most of my fleet runs HDEO and that is cheap enough that I don't worry about $4 a change cost savings... I get the OP's point, but the USA trend is to manage labor costs and time for services, not disposable service materials cost.
We all think the Euro trend to 10K changes is kinda nuts when we hear rumors of component failures for lack of even checking fluids on closed systems... It's that once you extend the OCI, the owner stops checking anything ...
I tend to agree with this theory.
Combine this with the manufacturers not even providing dip sticks to check the oil level as required, and we have a consumer who at the end of the day that doesn't even know how to open the bonnet/hood without assistance.
This applies particularly to the leading European car manufacturers.
For example, If the yellow check oil light comes on they don't know what it means because they haven't read the manual.
The default course of action is to call Roadside Assist or take it to the nearest dealer.
The manuals support this course of action.
Checking the air pressure in the tyres is another matter altogether.
Run flat tyres and people who don't even know how to change a flat tyre are symptomatic of a broader problem with operator education.
In summary, the vehicles overall are so reliable these days combined with the degree of difficulty of servicing imposed by the Europeans has made operators lazy and ignorant on many levels to the point of incompetency.
EFI is another example of the level of reliability and user friendliness of the car engines alone.
For example, how many people in society in general would know how to start the engine on their lawn mower that's flooded simply because they pressed the primer button once too many times in the middle of Summer?
Let alone be bothered to check the oil level before they start the thing.
The opening post of this thread opens the mind to many possibilities.
The answer to the question posed I suspect lies in the level of education and has cultural issues intertwined with the practical realities of this modern world.